Through Space and Time
by henriettaline
Summary: Why would a man surrender to the universe unless it's the only thing he can do? In 2018, as disaster strikes in New York, the last events of "Goodbye" finally make a strange sort of sense. Speculative Fiction.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: There's a lot of stuff in here that I'm not expert in; I've done my best to do a little research and make the details sound plausible, but that's it. Please suspend disbelief if you can as I explore this little idea.**  
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_I do not own anything to do with Glee. The song used was written by Jonathan Cain.  
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**Day 0: Disaster**

The Euler Building in New York. Named after a mathematical finance company who in turn had taken the name of a pioneering mathematician who would surely have cringed at what uses they had for his logic. A target, that day in 2018, for a set of financial profiteers who wanted to get an edge on their competition, and weren't above using very illegal means to do it.

Like computer espionage of a competitor. And then, to cover their tracks, setting a series of bombs in the competitor's building, to knock out their systems, fry their servers and backups, and distract key personnel.

The electromagnetic pulse generators were set under the offices on the fifth floor, with some minor explosives to distract the staff and cause evacuation. Bombs surrounded the servers, deep in the bowels of the building. A storm was coming in from the sea, high winds, but this seemed of little consequence to the explosives crew as the countdown proceeded to the appointed time.

At one-thirty in the afternoon, the pulse blew the power and electronics, followed a minute later by the shielded explosives that the pulse triggered. The saboteurs congratulated themselves on a job well done.

Then it all started going very wrong.

Almost seventeen years after 9/11, everyone in New York, particularly in the financial community, knew to evacuate a building at the slightest sign of trouble with the structure. The Euler was also quite a narrow building, and the occupants of the fifty floors above ground all got out without difficulty.

The food court below ground, right above the servers, was a different matter. Its floor had been mangled from the blasts, blocks heaved up from the force and sunk down to the floors below. The pulses had cut access to even the backup generators, so the place went completely dark, everyone screaming as they felt the blasts but saw nothing. Many were badly hurt as the floor buckled beneath them and furniture flew, nobody able to see anything coming.

Once the blasts subsided, gradually people pulled out their phones to call for help. But the EM pulse had ruined those too, for the most part, though some of the screens still worked for a while to give them a little light. What they saw was a mess, bodies, furniture, slabs of floor and ceiling. And no way out, the stair supports cracked and the stairs themselves tumbling down. People on the stairs or too close to them had been killed on impact.

All they could do was listen to each other cry in pain and for help, try to assist and comfort each other as best they could, and hear the creaks of the building above them as it swayed in the wind.

The investigation later revealed that the construction materials had been inadequately reinforced, everyone involved cutting corners to make a quick buck. With some of the supports bomb-damaged, the remaining structure wasn't sufficient to withstand the storm winds that were now blowing in from the sea. An hour after the bombs blew apart the basement to trash the server farm, the Euler Building crashed down, smashing into the side of the building next door and filling its own basement with debris, killing almost everyone who had been trapped in the food court.

Almost.


	2. Chapter 2

**Day 0: Rachel Berry**

The day was a Monday, and Broadway was dark. Rachel Berry, two years after graduating from NYADA, was enjoying the day off from her demanding schedule; as a chorus member of the hit show _Starstruck_ and understudy for the lead, she put in full nights of singing and dancing while still having to be prepared to take over the main role of Jessica at a moment's notice. It was challenging and an amazing opportunity, but it didn't leave her much time or energy for anything else. She had a boyfriend she'd been seeing casually for about two months, technically exclusively but that was really just because neither of them was interested in playing the field. They had another lunch date set for Wednesday, and she was looking forward to it, but so far today she was enjoying having the day to herself. And who knows, this might be one of the last times she could be completely free to walk on her own in Manhattan, undisturbed, she'd had a few matinees in the starring role and her agent was working on some of the critics to come see her. She could hope.

In mid-morning she'd received a call from Grace Chan, the proprietor of _Grace Notes_, a specialist music store near Battery Park. Grace prided herself on being able to source rare sheet music, and the vocal score Rachel had ordered a few weeks previously had arrived in that morning's shipment. Since it was her day off, Rachel decided to head down and get it immediately. She could start working on the new pieces that afternoon. She had it on very good authority that the producers of _Starstruck_ were planning something daring, a revival of the previously unsuccessful mid-70s vampire musical _Love in Vein_. Reviving past flops was never done, but there had been a lot of tampering with the initial mounting, the result becoming more camp than the edgy romance that was originally intended, and the producers were sure it had been far ahead of its time and would fare much better in its original version currently than it could have before. They planned to retitle it. But hardly any copies of the score existed, especially with the original numbers. Rachel knew she'd nail the audition if she could prepare properly, and Grace had somehow managed to track down an original copy.

_Grace Notes_ was in a small building near the Battery, an odd place for such a store, but Grace was a marvel and liked the eccentric breadth of clientele that had found her despite her location. Rachel beamed at her as she came in, complimenting Grace on her connections and research.

"It must be your charm, Grace, I don't know of anyone else who could have found this," Rachel gushed, so happy to get the score. She tucked it into her shoulder bag.

"You'd be surprised who I used to know and where, in my younger days," the sixtyish woman said.

"I'm not sure I would." Rachel laughed. "But seriously, thank you. Tickets when it opens, of course."

"My granddaughter will be thrilled."

Rachel bid Grace goodbye and walked back up the end of Broadway. Wanting a late lunch, she headed for her favorite vegan bistro, _Cornucopia_, at its nearest location in the food court of the Euler Building. She normally went to the original _Cornucopia_ near Times Square, but as they'd expanded to other locations in New York City each new place had its own special dish, and this was an excellent opportunity to try the sweet potato risotto that only the Lower Manhattan location had.

She entered the Euler, heading past the stores and the cafe on the main floor, down through the main atrium, and finally to the food court at the lower level. Not the most obvious place for them to be, but it was about as peaceful a location as one could get on the outskirts of the financial district, and vegan foodies had little difficulty seeking out what they liked.

Rachel checked the posted menu. Sweet potato risotto, excellent. That and the ratatouille would make an excellent late lunch, quite filling. She placed her order, paid, and stepped aside to wait. But after a few minutes, every light in the place went out, the only light being a little that filtered through from above.

Calls of concern came from various places around her, most noticeably from _Cornucopia_'s cook, complaining that the stove had shut off - they used flame but it was electronically controlled. Rachel backed up a little further, seeking more of the glow of natural light coming from above, stopping when she found herself backed into a support column. Too early in the summer for power trouble, she would have thought, but these things happen, though she heard one man complain that his phone wasn't working either, which was unusual.

Then, a bare minute later... explosions below, rocking the floor, smashing it up and her down onto it, along with everyone else. Crashes came from in front of her, the bistro's kitchen turning into instant chaos. Rachel screamed but couldn't hear herself, drowned out by the blasts and the screams that came from all around her. Her heart was racing, thudding erratically.

The light that she'd been seeking before had gone away, and it registered that something must be blocking it out that wasn't there before, something... she heard more crashes, large things falling from above, and she realized that she was potentially exposed to whatever was coming down. The pillar behind her was starting to tilt... she hurriedly scrambled to her feet, trying to get away from what might be about to fall.

But in her hurry Rachel stumbled in the dark, catching her foot in a crevice caused by the blast. She screamed again, feeling her ankle twist, falling. The knee of her other leg wrenched as she fell badly onto it.

Some light came now, scattered around the area, a few phones still having working screens, but nobody had a signal, and even that power was failing. But Rachel raised her head and looked rapidly around, seeing glimpses of destruction, the downed stairs, people lying still, others vainly trying to find a way out. Panic, chaos, destruction. In the last of the scattered light she saw the wall beside the bistro, at the edge of the court, and she crawled towards it, hoping it could give her some protection, or at least a place out of the way of the panels above that were still threatening to fall and whatever else above them that the pillars used to support. Crawling was difficult, with her knee badly bruised, but she persisted, and eventually found herself under the counter by the wall. She huddled there, trying to tune out the terror around her. Even the counter, though, was not safe, and she felt it shift. She pressed herself against the wall, yelping at the pain in her knee as she stretched out. Above her the counter tipped, leaving her in the small triangular space it now formed with the wall.

Safe for now, as much as she could be, her adrenaline subsided, leaving her with the pain of bruises. Her knee and ankle were already stiffening, and her ribs were badly bruised from her initial fall. Her mouth and throat were dry and dusty, but her shoulder bag had been wrapped around her body, and she still had a few mouthfuls of water left in the bottle inside. She took one now.

Then all she could do was wait and hope that rescue would come. But she could hear the creak of the building above shifting in the wind, its movements getting larger as time passed, its sounds prompting new screams of fear in the others trapped down with her.

In moments of extreme crisis, people naturally seek out what comforts them most, and Rachel was no exception. In the dark by herself, lying under the angled counter, trying to ignore the cries around her and the creaks of the shifting building above, her mind cast back to a happier time and a tall young man who would wrap himself around her and hold her tight. She'd always felt so safe in his arms, so loved. She remembered that now, imagining his body lovingly cradling hers, repeating his name as a mantra, a barrier against the fear and chaos that permeated the lower level of the Euler. She hadn't seen him in six years, not since he'd taken her to the train station to send her on her way to New York, but she could still taste his kiss on her lips, feel his arms around her, her memories of his love a talisman for her now.

_"Finn... Finn... Finn..."_

And the next time the building moved, it crashed down.


	3. Chapter 3

**Day 0: Finn Hudson**

Six years, the longest period of active duty for a standard eight-year enlistment, and it would be up in a few days. Specialist Finn Hudson, US Army, lifting weights in his unit's base gym, wondered what he was going to do now. Yes, he still had two years of reserve duty to do, and he was subject to recall, but leaving active duty meant he had to decide what he was going to do with his life, and he hadn't thought about that in six years.

He hadn't been able to come to any sort of decision six years ago. Faced with options he didn't want, and some he wanted but still didn't entirely like or couldn't do, he'd made his choice by choosing not to decide. Stopping the awful dilemma by simply looking into his heart, and casting his lot in with whatever the universe wanted for him, because he couldn't pick anything himself. Not following his beloved Rachel to New York where he figured he'd just be a loser and drag her down or be eventually rejected (probably both). Not keeping her waiting in Lima while he got his act together, when she should be headed for NYADA and stardom. Not... anything he could think of. And he loved Rachel so much, he couldn't trust himself to make a good decision where she was involved. He wasn't all that good at thinking anyway, his heart knew better than his brain did most of the time. And either way his heart would break, breaking to lose Rachel, it would break if she left him but also break if she wrecked who she was out of love for him. Breaking to not deserve her, to not be good enough for her. And under this pressure, his heart had spoken.

_Surrender_, his heart had told him. _Surrender, trust the universe, that you will be with her when you should be._

He didn't know where this idea had come from, especially since it wasn't a common one either in general or for him. Despite his thoughts about his tether to Rachel and his brief fixation on an image in a grilled cheese sandwich, Finn wasn't particularly spiritual, except when he heard Rachel sing. But unlike all the other options, it seemed like something he could actually do. And he had surrendered. He'd asked the universe what he should do, and he'd come face-to-face with an army recruiter. Signed on for the longest active term he could, because it felt right. No idea why, he didn't really ask himself that, he just did it. And then put the girl he loved more than his life on a train to New York, to her future without him.

He hadn't thought about his life in six years, but he'd certainly thought about _her_. Sometimes wondering how she was doing or wishing he could be with her, but mostly just aimless thinking about her, her voice, her eyes, her smile, the feel of her body against his._ Rachel._

But now, six years gone, he did wonder what she might be doing, and what she might do if he showed up again. Not that he had a plan to, but he didn't have a plan not to either. He didn't know what he was going to do. Maybe the universe would tell him.

Finn's thoughts and workout were both interrupted when the staff sergeant, Fogie, poked his head into the gym and called out his name.

"Sorry, Huddy, I know you're almost off active, but Slats says we're needed. Disaster S and R. Get your gear, we assemble in 60."

S and R, Search and Rescue, or Recovery. It wasn't an official infantry duty, but their unit had developed a team who specialized in that, and it included Finn. He'd excelled at his regular Combat Lifesaver training, particularly in the three years since Gregg, one of their medics, had arrived and encouraged him; he liked being able to help people, save his buddies and affected civilians, though when it had been suggested that he could turn medic himself it didn't feel right. He was used to his buddies here anyway, he liked Gregg and he'd been paired up with Coff since AIT, if he went back for more training he'd be reassigned. So he helped them both out, standard infantry work and muscle most of the time, front line paramedical intervention and backing up their medic when that was needed instead. He'd worked well in that role on the team, they'd had a tour in Afghanistan where they'd dealt significantly with Taliban bombings of schools and other US-backed civilian installations, and while it had been hard to deal emotionally with digging kids out of bombed schools, he felt good about the ones they'd managed to save. He liked his role in that better than just being the muscle or waiting behind the line for someone else to do the initial recovery.

It wasn't usual for them to get called in at home, though they'd had two assignments to help with hurricane disaster relief last year. But it was too early in the summer for hurricanes and too late for spring flooding. Finn let his mind empty as he took a quick shower, dressed, and went to his room to grab his duffel. Great thing about being in the Army, he didn't have to worry about the big picture, where he went and what he was supposed to do, all he had to do was figure out the details of how to do it when he got there.

The team assembled as directed, and it was the same extended squad they'd formed for the Afghan work, which was a little surprising. Coff and Jacksy for muscle, Gregg as medic, Finn assisting both - that was their usual rescue team. But also reporting were Sammy and Hunts, who normally worked ahead of them when they had to check for explosives, and that didn't bode well for whatever they were going into. The full squad from the other company was coming too, the six guys they'd trained a few months ago to do the same work, so whoever it was needed serious help.

The destination was domestic, they could tell that much, but they weren't told where they were going until they were airborne, so word couldn't get out. Then they were told they were on their way to New York City, to help the local emergency workers with a bombed office building in the financial district. The FDNY had their hands full dealing with the evacuation of and damage to the neighboring buildings, and didn't have as much experience with explosives, so the Army had been called in to relieve the NYPD and help with the recovery of the wreckage and casualties in the base of the building itself.

Search and recovery with the bomb squad in the wreckage of an office building in New York - this didn't look good for whoever had been there, or what was going on for it to have happened. But Finn couldn't worry about that, the big picture wasn't his job. Like with the Afghan schoolkids, they had to save who they could and try to ignore the fate of those they couldn't. Do their best and hope it was enough.


	4. Chapter 4

**Days 0,1,2: Hiram and LeRoy Berry**

When Hiram and LeRoy Berry had first heard of an office tower crashing to the ground in New York, they were alarmed; any tragedy in New York caught their attention and made them concerned about their daughter Rachel. However, they reasoned that their little rising star was very unlikely to be in an office tower. The Broadway address gave them pause, but it was near the foot of Broadway, far away from the theater district. Just to gain more peace of mind, they gave her a phone call on her cell phone. It went immediately to voicemail, and they left a message, then did the same for her rarely-used landline.

Communications were overloaded, they told themselves. But as afternoon turned into evening they still had no reply to any of their calls and texts, with some messages listed as "undeliverable". Since it was a Monday, she wouldn't be at work, and she wouldn't have gone for so long without checking her messages, surely? Increasingly worried, they also left a message for Santana Lopez to ask her when she'd last seen Rachel. The two of them rarely went more than a few days without at least getting together for coffee, so if anyone would know where Rachel might be, it was Santana.

When the next day dawned with no news at all, the Berry men decided to head to New York. Flying was out of the question, most transportation in and out of New York was chaotic, but they could drive in. Even if it all turned out to be nothing, just communication difficulties, they'd be so happy to see her and hold her again. They kept telling themselves they were overreacting but that it was all right to overreact.

They'd been on the road for two hours when they heard back from Santana Lopez. Even getting a message from Santana could be nothing other than bad news, since it meant that there was communication getting through and still no word from Rachel. Santana hadn't heard from her either, but was heading over to her apartment to check on her. She was obviously trying to be reassuring, and they let her pretend. Maybe Rachel was just at home and something had happened to her phone. Maybe her carrier was more affected than Santana's. Maybe there was someone she was worried about and she was checking on a friend. Maybe... they held out hope.

An hour later and they heard from Santana again. Rachel wasn't home, and by the looks of it hadn't been home since the previous morning, Monday's mail still in her mailbox. Santana promised she'd ask around the others that Rachel knew.

Hour by hour they got more updates from Santana as she investigated, but no sign or word could be found of Rachel. Broadway was staying dark for the next week, with no reason for her to be at the theater, and none of her castmates or the show staff and crew that she knew had heard from her. Other friends were similarly clueless. Santana even eventually managed to get in touch with Brendan, whom Rachel had recently started dating, and he hadn't heard from her. He'd left her a phone message wanting to reschedule their lunch date, since the restaurant he wanted them to try was closed for the rest of the week as well, but she hadn't replied. He hadn't been particularly worried until he'd heard an agitated Santana ask him if he knew where Rachel was.

Finally LeRoy and Hiram arrived in New York and went to Rachel's apartment. Santana was there to meet them, clearly frustrated. No sign of Rachel, and nobody had heard from her since Sunday, when she'd gone for dinner after the matinee show with a few castmates. She'd given them no specifics of plans for Monday, it was a relaxation day for her just as it was for many on Broadway. Her apartment looked like she'd just gone out for the day, her toiletries and hairbrush all still sitting in their usual places.

They kept calling her friends, casting as wide a net as possible. Surely she'd told someone what she was doing, or had some information about other places in the city where she might have gone on her day off. But every answer they got back had nothing, just sympathy and worry. The call from farthest away was the most upset, Kurt Hummel in London England, calling as soon as he woke up and got the message; he didn't make much sense at first with 'why now', but eventually they managed to piece together that his stepbrother Finn Hudson, Rachel's former fiancé, was due to end his active service in the Army in a few days, and Kurt had been hoping they might reunite.

Might he have gotten out early and come to her, was that why she wasn't anywhere she was expected to be? If anyone could break into Rachel's normal routine, it would be Finn, though Kurt was sure he wasn't out yet. But Rachel was dedicated, she wouldn't have walked out on her show, and apparently she hadn't even acknowledged the message from _Starstruck_'s staff that the show was called off for the rest of the week. It was general knowledge that Broadway was staying dark, but surely Rachel would have called someone connected with the show, even just to see if everyone else was all right. The more they heard back from others the more they knew this was true, Rachel's dedication was almost as highly thought of as her talent, and after a year of working with her on _Starstruck_ the producers were considering her for the female lead in a revival they were planning. Everyone was worried.

It was quite a longshot and the hour was late, but no stone should be left unturned. LeRoy called Carole Hummel, Finn's mother, only to find out that she'd just had word that Finn's active duty had been extended, reasons unknown. Not surprising really, when news first broke about the disaster everyone had immediately jumped to thoughts of terrorism, and despite no reliable claimants surfacing there was still the potential that it was. In New York itself the prevailing opinion was different, that Euler Financial had been the specific target, but they could see why the Army might want to ready itself for alternatives.

Finally exhaustion overtook them and they slept, hoping the morning might bring news. But all they awoke to was more messages from people who hadn't heard from her, adding their worry and prayers to all they'd had so far. This was serious, and Hiram and LeRoy headed to the police as soon as they could to formally report Rachel missing.

The police were handling the missing person issues for the disaster, having ceded the actual recovery to specialized army units while staying in charge of the local logistics; the report would also be linked to their existing database for missing persons, since unfortunately people went missing in New York every day.

After filling in as many details about Rachel as they could and providing photographs for the recognition system, they waited to talk to an officer about her. There was also some video available from the outskirts of the disaster area. Manhattan was saturated with security cameras, but while those closest to the Euler had been wiped out by the EM pulse, there was footage from farther away that the police were using to build a model of who had gone into and out of the area, both to track potential victims and also to identify potential perpetrators.

They waited, and after an hour they were told there were some potential matches in the perimeter footage, and an officer sat with them as they took a look at a few clips. The first two clearly weren't her, though they could see the superficial features that had triggered the system's match, but then they moved to the third.

And there she was at -0:13:41, walking along quite happily, heading up lower Broadway. The two men's hearts warmed to see her for a split second, the natural reflex of a parent seeing a child. But they hadn't wanted to see her there, even though it was a lot more information about where she might be than they'd had before. She'd been in the disaster zone, they could no longer be in denial about that. And there was no matching footage of her leaving the area.

Might she simply be lost amid the confusion that the Euler's fall had brought, her means of communication knocked out much as the others around there had been? Or something else could have happened to her, under cover of the chaos. They weren't sure what to hope for.

Why might she have been in the Euler Building? It didn't make sense, it was full of specialized financial companies, complements to Euler Financial itself. And the offices had all evacuated as soon as the bombs went off. The building it had partly crashed into had had some injured and a few deaths, but all had been recovered and identified, as had those who had been trapped in the Euler's stores and atrium. The recovery teams were by now working below ground, they had unofficially heard. But LeRoy scanned the list of building tenants, and he felt like his heart stopped.

"Hiram..." he gasped out for his husband, who still stared at the paused security recording, unable to tear his eyes from what he knew might be the last image of their beloved daughter. LeRoy's hand clawed at his arm. "There's a _Cornucopia_." Rachel loved their food and frequently went to the one close to Times Square. If she was in the area, and hungry... A quick glance at the map told them the worst, it was below ground, beyond the area cleared so far, close to where the most destruction had been. Tears now flooded them, and the two men clung together, sure now that their cherished little girl was there, lost in the mess below ground at the Euler Building.

The policeman, very experienced in dealing with missing-person cases, took note of this possible location, quietly asked a few more questions about Rachel, confirmed their contact information, and showed them to another room where they could sit until they felt ready to go. They nodded, still crying, and thanked the officer. Once the door closed behind them the officer sighed and added another name to the "Likely" list for the Euler's food court: Rachel Berry, age 23.

Later that day the Berry men gravitated to the barricades around the disaster site, drawn to the last place they knew Rachel had been. They saw the wall of pictures and the piles of flowers, the other people searching for loved ones welcoming them in vigil. A pair of middle-aged women talked to them quietly, finding their own pain lessened by helping others, and, on finding they were from out-of-town, gave them information on how things were in New York and what unofficial resources they could use.

That night they added Rachel's picture to the wall, a color candid from rehearsal that showed her smiling. They stood together, hands joined, murmuring prayers. At all stages they'd been told the same thing: "We're doing all we can." And they knew, all that was possible was being done to find survivors in the bowels of that building.

Unspoken was that sometimes the possible just wasn't enough.


	5. Chapter 5

**Day 3: Rachel Berry**

Rachel was lying in the dark, though sometimes the feeling of 'lying down' or 'dark' no longer really registered, she had been doing both for so long. What did it matter that you were lying down if you couldn't really move, trapped in a small space and muscles seized up from bruising and disuse? What was dark, if you hadn't seen light, or anything, for so long? Sometimes she didn't even know if her eyes were open or closed, though they were mostly closed against the dust if nothing else. And she remembered light, remembered images, people, her beloved spotlights and even more beloved Finn. Him at least she found it easier to remember as she lay there, sometimes even imagining he was with her, as if instead of being trapped under a counter in a ruined building she was being held tightly to the broad chest of the man she loved, these thoughts her only real comfort as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

She was thirsty, her meagre supply of water long gone, though as with 'light' and 'movement' the idea of water was feeling more like a dim memory than anything real. Sound, too... she could hear herself breathe, and she thought she talked and sang to herself a little, but that could just be in her head. Like she'd started to exist only in her brain with the rest of her dissociated, unneeded and numbed, not a source of anything other than pain.

She'd long since stopped hearing anyone else. Certainly no screams came any more. From time to time she thought she might have heard someone or something moving around, something shifting, but when she'd called out nobody came, no reaction at all. At least nothing more seemed to have fallen in a long time. How long? Trapped under the immovable counter, cut off from any source of light, she had no idea how much time had passed. It felt like a lot, a week, more even, but then she should be dead. Maybe she was, but in that case the afterlife was wretched. _Sheol_, the pit, she'd never really believed in that but -

Vaguely Rachel realized that she was becoming delirious. Any sounds would just be tricks her mind was playing on her. She fought against the slide into oblivion; she was Rachel Berry and she'd fight to the end. The end, her end... she dug deep and mustered a last bit of coherence despite her condition.

If this was it, if she was going to die, she would die with a song on her lips and her true love enshrined in her heart. She'd have that at least, even if she was never to see him again. She swallowed, clearing her throat the little that she could. She heard his voice in her head, singing to her, and she sang with him, her voice faded from all she'd endured.

_Restless hearts_  
_Sleep alone tonight_  
_Sending all my love_  
_Along the wire_

The only image in her mind, a face with a pair of warm light brown eyes and a dimpled crooked smile. She sang on, so tired.

_Through space and time_  
_Always another show_  
_Wondering where I am_  
_Lost without you_

Exhausted, dehydrated, stiff, still in pain from her injuries, her heartbeat increasingly erratic.

_I'm forever yours..._

Rachel slid into unconsciousness, lying alone in the dark of the ruins of the Euler Building.


	6. Chapter 6

**Day 3: Finn Hudson**

Three days into the recovery work, and all six of the Army's main recovery team were doing their job mechanically, training and experience the only things carrying them through. They'd cleared the main level and atrium of the Euler and were now working deeper in the food court, and all they'd seen for the last two days had been debris and bodies. They'd had survivors higher up, but the lower level was so chopped up and choked by debris that anyone who hadn't been crushed seemed to have been suffocated. Infrared still showed heat sources, but there were many potential reasons for those. And the dangers of the site, both its instability and the potential for explosives, meant that they had to continue working slowly in small numbers, the two teams trading off as needed but without outsiders.

Sammy and Hunts were working further down, checking for potential unexploded bombs, though that at least seemed to not be a problem. Coff expressed relief at this, but Finn frowned; while it was good that there wasn't more to come, and safer for them, it still would have been better if some of the bombs that had gone off had failed instead. Though Finn had long since trained himself not to think about might-have-beens.

Finn was exhausted, physically tired from the work, and emotionally tired from the destruction he'd seen. He'd thought he had gotten used to seeing death, the Afghan kids he'd found in the wreckage of their schools had been heartrending, but it was a different thing here at home, especially in such a casual setting that would have been normal to him another lifetime ago. And every hour or so they would find another body, and he'd think of that wall of pictures just outside the barricade, all those missing loved ones, and yet another family hearing the worst. He knew he'd put his own family and friends through the waiting, when he'd been deployed, but at least he'd managed to stay alive and whole and they'd never had to get that awful news. How had he done that to them? It seemed so cruel, now, to have knowingly sought out that risk. There was certainly plenty of it that came without warning. But he'd simply done what he'd felt was the right thing to do, at each turn, much as he continued to do his job now.

And as another body was found, he couldn't help but think of how short life was. He'd been wondering, before they'd gotten the emergency order to come here, just what he was going to do with his life now that his six years of active duty were up, whether he dared look for the girl he'd loved so much he'd let her go. He'd thought maybe, eventually, if he could do something to deserve her, but now... the death around him reminded him that for some people tomorrow didn't come, you had to take your chance today. Maybe when they were done here he could stay in the city and look her up. He didn't want to interrupt the life she'd built, whatever that was, but if nothing else he could at least hear her sing again. And then, who knows. He'd waited long enough.

Finn bent down to get better leverage against the downed ceiling panel he was trying to shift, and he heard something that seemed to be coming from behind him. "Hold on," he said to the others. "Do you hear that?" He rose, turning, and walked as quietly as he could in the direction of what he heard, to the other side of the cleared central area. The sound was very soft, but there. Like someone singing, coming through very faintly from behind the large downed panels that blocked the right side of the food court.

The others shook their heads. "Nope, Huddy," Coff said. He'd been closer to that side, standing back; the next area to be cleared was to the left, where Finn had been working.

"It sounds like someone's back there. Singing."

"After this?" Coff loosened his helmet and bent to put his ear to a small gap between the right side panels. He rose and shook his head again. "It'd be great, and it's not completely impossible, but I don't hear a thing."

Finn listened harder. It sounded... like Rachel, actually. Singing to him as they'd sung together... _Lost without you..._ So very faint, and none of the others heard it.

"Sure you're not just hearing things?" Jacksy asked.

Well... he'd just been thinking about her, thinking about trying to find her here in New York, see whether there could ever be anything between them again. He was here, after all, and done with his active duty commitment as soon as they finished the recovery effort, so maybe this was the universe's way of telling him to do it. Or maybe his heart and mind were just so full of her, still.

Finn shook his head ruefully. "Probably. It sounded like..." he trailed off, not really having a name for what Rachel was to him. "Someone I used to know."

"Now I know you're hearing things," Jacksy scoffed. "You've been at this too long."

"Take a break, Huddy, stretch your legs and clear your head," Gregg said. "We can manage."

Finn sighed. They must be right. "Okay. Back in twenty." Twenty minutes - long enough to get above ground, breathe a little, go down the block. What was left of the block. Seeing the destruction above ground usually did a lot to help him focus on the task at hand.

He made it down to the fence beside the wall of pictures, feeling their presence rather than properly seeing them, all the pictures of missing loved ones together with flowers, prayers, and pleas for help. He turned to go back, but as he did, a large picture caught his eye, one newly plastered prominently among the others.

Surely it couldn't be... sometimes he saw her everywhere. But Finn stopped, and looked at it properly, and he saw the same brown hair, eyes, and smile that had trapped his heart over eight years before, and read the plea below:_ Missing: Rachel Berry. Please help us find our shining star._

She was among the missing, she was here... _he'd really heard her. _Finn sprinted back to the site, adrenaline shooting through him. He grabbed his radio to signal the others. "Listen harder, she's there!" he called over the radio as he ran. He wasn't sure he was very coherent.

"She's here," he shouted at the rest of the team as he came back down the rigged stairs to the clearance site.

"Who are you talking about?" Coff asked. "You're not making sense, Huddy."

"The person I thought I heard, she's here, she's on the wall." He motioned them to be quiet, crouching down by the right panels, listening as hard as he could. Nothing. "**_Rachel?_**" he called out as loudly as he could, desperation taking hold.

"We listened, when you radioed, we didn't hear anything..."

"I know her voice," Finn protested. "Come on, Coff, Jack, Doc, we have to shift this. _Now._"

They moved the ceiling panels away, first one, then another, and a third. They could see through now to behind the others, a few feet of floor without much debris since the ceiling had come down first and blocked the rest. Some ducts had fallen near the wall, and there were still some panels down, but there were no bodies.

"There's nothing," Coff said, shining his light slowly around the area. "Sorry."

"What about there? The counter, by the wall." It was blocked by a fallen metal duct, and the counter was leaning down at an angle, but the wall behind it was straight and true, unaffected by the blast. Finn strode to it.

"There's hardly any space back there, Huddy."

"She's small. _Rachel!_" He gripped the duct but it wouldn't move.

"Hold on." Jacksy motioned him away and came in with the metal saw, Coff and Finn bracing the duct as he cut into it. They cleared it as soon as the last cut was completed, then shone a light around the corner of the counter to flood the small area below.

And there was a woman's arm, a shoulder, and a head of long dark hair.

Finn yelled wordlessly and pushed forward to see her more closely. He gave an agonized groan as he recognized the face that he once knew better than his own.

"Is that her?" Coff asked in amazement as he and Jacksy moved the downed counter away.

"Yes," Finn choked out. He knelt down by her, checking for a pulse. "Come on, Rach, baby, _please_. Please be alive." And there her pulse was, thready and faltering but there, a soft whisper of breath against his cheek telling him that yes, she was still alive. His face contorted in relief and stress, and he moved to gather her up in his arms.

"Stretcher," Gregg ordered. "Let us do this right, Hud." He pulled Finn back, taking his place at Rachel's head as Jacksy and Coff brought in the stretcher. The three of them rolled her gently over and back onto the stretcher, then strapped her in. All Finn could do was watch and pray wordlessly, then bend to kiss her cheek once they'd carried her clear.

The others didn't ask Finn who she was; they sort of knew, at least they knew that while their buddy dated casually between deployments he'd never gotten anywhere close to serious, and there was some girl in his past whom he never talked about. How this could be her they didn't know, but clearly it was, and they themselves were too exhausted from three days of clearing debris and bodies to question it.

Once they reached the surface, a cheer went up from the other emergency workers, celebrating the existence of a survivor. Finn identified her to the police and received permission from Fogie, currently sergeant in charge of the recovery teams, to go with her to the hospital. His eyes barely left her, as if he was afraid she couldn't be real and alive, that if he took his eyes away from Rachel's pale face she would stop breathing or simply disappear.


	7. Chapter 7

**Day 3: Aftermath**

Finn sat in the waiting room at the hospital, trying to wrap his tired mind around it all.

Word had come back from the doctors that Rachel would be fine once she'd been rehydrated and her nutrient balance adjusted. She also had a wrenched knee, a twisted ankle and a lot of bruising, but no broken bones and no blood loss. But it had been a very near thing. Her fathers, already in New York looking for her, were on their way.

But what did this mean, finding her again like this? Finn had thought the universe would reunite them if and when it wanted to, but he never thought that would mean something like what had happened at the Euler Building. He couldn't accept that the universe would cause or even allow such destruction, kill all those other people, to bring him and Rachel back together. And though he didn't think about it much, any faith he'd had in destiny had been lost in the rubble of an Afghan school.

So he sat there in his t-shirt and fatigues, trying to listen to his instinct and his heart, just as he had six years before. Trying at least to get a feeling of what was right.

"So this is why you did it, huh?" Finn looked up into a face much older than when he'd seen it last, lined by six years of life and three days of fear. Hiram Berry. Finn's confusion showed, and the older man sat down next to him. "We never really understood why you sent Rachel away, Finn, even though we were happy about it. She certainly never understood, especially why you went into the army instead of going to New York. She was really hurt, and worried for you, it was very hard on her, but... if this is why, it was right." Hiram met his eyes. "Thank you," he said, with deep sincerity. He clasped Finn's shoulder. "She's awake and asking for you."

_If this is why... _He'd never been sure that Rachel had surrendered when she'd gotten onto that train, it wasn't her way and he'd been unable to explain to her why he felt they should, but he certainly had surrendered. And he'd gone where he felt he was supposed to go, without questioning why he felt it, because that's what you do when you surrender. That had led him here, now, to the rescue crew in the ruins of the Euler Building, exactly where and when she needed him. The one person who would be able to hear her voice, no matter what, when she sang to him as she faded.

If the building was to fall anyway, and she was to be there... he'd been there to save her. And he'd been able to do that because he'd surrendered, he'd allowed the universe to put him where it wanted to. Here.

Why did the universe save her and not one of the others, so many of the others who had died? Why was she special? Maybe she was the only one who could be saved. But he'd surrendered to the universe for her sake, and she was special, at least to him. Especially to him.

He'd thought he'd given her up and gone into the army just to get out of her way, but clearly it had been for more. Not fate, not destiny, just the willingness of the universe to work a miracle for someone willing to trust it completely.

Maybe he deserved her after all.

* * *

Finn went into the hospital room and saw Rachel there, already rosier from the IV hydration. She smiled at him, and his heart leaped as their eyes met. He went to her side.

"You came..." she whispered. "I called for you, and you came."

"I was just outside."

"In the dark... when the building moved and everyone screamed..."

She'd called for him then, as the Euler fell. She had called to him, and he had come - but on a path he'd started six years before. Somehow he'd heard her in his heart, six years ago, when it told him to surrender, to trust that he'd be with her when he should be. Today. He took her hand. "For you Rach? Anything."

Someone moved a chair right behind him, and he sat down, still holding her hand. He reached his other hand over to touch her face, his eyes drinking in those familiar features, even more beautiful at 23 than she'd been in high school, despite all she'd been through in the last three days.

She, in turn, had her eyes fixed on him, taking in the changes that six years in the army had wrought. "I love you," she said softly. "I am so glad you're here."

"You know, you've got quite the voice," Finn said. He stroked her cheek. "I always knew it was beautiful, and powerful, and I always thought I'd hear it no matter where I was, but you reached me through six years of time. Got me all ready for you, even without knowing it." He blinked back tears. "I love you so much, Rachel."

"Finn... stay with me." He knew she meant more than just now.

And Finn looked inside his heart, and asked himself what he felt was right. Asked the universe.

"Yes."

.

END


End file.
